


Spider-Catcher

by Ashabadash



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Arachnophobia, F/M, Fluff, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I haven't written in ages, Spiders, set after Winter Soldier and before AOU, slightly OOC, the avengers live in the tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 12:25:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3936676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashabadash/pseuds/Ashabadash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Natasha?” He called out, knocking on the door. It swung open and Bruce hurried in, coming to a sudden halt, shocked at the sight in front of him. </p>
<p>Natasha Romanov, badass super-spy, assassin extraordinaire, was cowering on top of her vanity, wrapped only in a towel, and shouting.</p>
<p>-----------------</p>
<p>Or, that one where Bruce helps Natasha capture a giant mutant spider and release it into the wild (or, into NYC.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spider-Catcher

Bruce looked around the common area to find that it was past midnight and he was the last one awake...again. This wasn’t the first time he got caught up in a book or an article online and lost track of time. Sometimes he’d sit on the couch after eating dinner and the next time he looked up, Steve would be sleepily shuffling into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.

 

He really needed to have JARVIS notify him when it hit midnight. Neither he nor The Other Guy were easy to deal with on limited sleep.

 

He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, cracking his back. He left his book on the end table and then took the elevator up three flights to the living quarters.

 

Tony’s design - well his second design of the tower, the first was destroyed by Loki - was meant as more of a place to stay when necessary. He hadn’t really expected all the Avengers (and then some) to show up at the door of Stark Tower asking for a place to stay. Granted, no one expected their lives to be turned upside-down and HYDRA to take down SHIELD.

 

Bruce was the first to show up. The release of SHIELD records meant that his location wasn’t a secret anymore, and SHIELD wasn’t the only organization that wanted to utilize the Hulk. He arrived at Tony’s front door with his one suitcase and Tony was happy to have a fellow scientist living with him.

 

The others trickled in shortly after. Tony had to construct some of the extra work spaces (“honestly, Tony, how many labs do you need in one building?” Pepper had asked him) into living areas. Soon enough, three of the levels of the Avengers Tower were set up like apartments, and everyone had their space.

 

The first level of living space was the loudest, and it was a second-home to Clint when duty called and he couldn’t make the flight back to Iowa. His rock music played so loud that occasionally even Bruce could hear the lyrics - and Tony’s secondary lab, where he promised not to blow things up, but occasionally did just that. Maria Hill also had a room on that floor, mostly because she was only there half the time and she didn’t mind the music or the fire alarms when she was there.

 

Go one floor up, and you had Tony and Pepper’s actual bedroom, as well as Sam, Thor, and Rhodey, all who had other places to live but crashed in the tower often enough that they were practically moved in. Thor personally enjoyed the tower because JARVIS always made sure to add poptarts to any grocery list, so the kitchen was Asguard-proof.

 

Bruce’s floor only had two other people living on it. It was the quietest, and when you step out of the elevator, a paper sign was taped over the monitor reading “No Tony’s Allowed.” No one was sure who put it there (Bruce had a sneaking feeling it was Pepper) but it seemed to work, and his floor seemed to be rock and roll and fire free. He shared the level with Natasha, who like Bruce prefered the quiet for meditation, and Steve, who probably could have handled the first floor, being that he could sleep through anything, but had been so awkward and formal about asking Natasha and Bruce if he could share their space they couldn’t tell him no.

 

Occasionally, Bruce would walk by the supersoldier’s room and hear him mid-nightmare. Bruce wondered if it wasn’t the noise level Steve was interested in, but maybe he was hoping to share space with friends who also struggled in the night with demons from the past.

 

Tonight though, as he walked past Cap’s room (he always left his door open, an odd and trusting trait that no one really expected) there was silence, save for Steve’s slight snore. Bruce shoved his hands in his pockets and moved to the next door, his door, and unlocked it. He looked down the hall, the last room being Natasha’s. There was a light from under the jar of the door, and he thought about walking over and saying...something, anything really. Goodnight, maybe. But he shook his head and walked into his room.

 

Tony several times described Bruce’s bedroom suite as “drab.” Bruce’s response though was that he really didn’t need much. He had a bed and a closet and a desk, and that’s all he really needed. He kept things neat. Not nearly as neat as Steve, Bruce had papers strewn on his desk and his bed was unmade, but it wasn’t a disaster zone like Clint’s. All in all, he liked his little space. Usually, he’d do a little meditation before going to bed, but the realization of it being so late made him feel exhausted, and he found himself changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt and going right to bed. The lights shut off once the covers were tucked in around him (thanks JARVIS) and he turned on his side to look out of his view over the city. He used to sleep with the blinds shut. Looking out at New York only brought bad memories. Of Harlem and Betty, of the Avenger’s first battle. The longer he was here though, the more comfortable he became. Soon the bad memories were chased away with the beauty of the view and the lights of the city.

 

His eyes were just starting to close when it happened. A blood curdling scream ripped through Bruce’s apartment, causing him to sit up at lightning speed. The lights brightened so fast his eyes didn’t have time to adjust. He shouted, covering his face, willing his heartbeat to calm down enough that he could function without The Other Guy visiting. Once he was in check, which thankfully didn’t take too long, Bruce shot out of bed and ran to the source of the noise: Natasha’s room.

 

“Natasha?” He called out, knocking on the door. It swung open and Bruce hurried in, coming to a sudden halt, shocked at the sight in front of him.

 

Natasha Romanov, badass super-spy, assassin extraordinaire, was cowering on top of her vanity, wrapped only in a towel, and shouting.

 

“Natasha what’s wrong?” Bruce asked, a little panicked. What in the world could scare her? Bruce was almost too afraid to find out.

 

“There’s a spider under my bed,” Natasha said, both very serious and very panicked at the same time. Bruce stared at her as if she grew a second head. “What?” she glared.

 

“Your operative name is Black Widow,” Bruce said, confused. “ **A type of spider!** ”

 

“Shut up and kill it,” Natasha growled. “I would have shot it, but my gun is in my nightstand and I missed with the knife,” Bruce looked and indeed, there was a knife sticking out of the floorboard by her bed.

 

“Alright alright,” he said, grabbing some tissues from her vanity and getting on his knees. He was glad to turn away, to hide the blush of having ran in on her in just a towel. Surely he was going to tease her after this for being afraid of such a measly - “holy shit!”

 

“I told you!”

 

“What is that!” Bruce leapt to his feet. He expected a tiny, measly spider he could kill with a shoe or a paper towel. No, this was the mother of all spiders, and it had to be the size of Bruce’s face. “I need more than a tissue.”

 

“My gun’s in the…”

 

“I’m not going to shoot it,” Bruce said. Besides, with his luck he’d miss the mutant-spider and shoot right through the floor. “Do you have a cup or something?”

 

“In the bathroom, there’s some plastic ones,” Natasha said. She hadn’t moved, poised perfectly on the chair. Her eyes didn’t leave the bed, like she developed x-ray vision and could see through the bed and was staring straight at the creature.

 

Bruce went to the bathroom, retrieving a cup and one of Nat’s slippers. He came back and resumed crouching on the floor. He reached as far as he dared and coaxed the thing into the cup, trapping it with the slipper. Once trapped, the spider didn’t look too meanincing. It was still way too big to be a normal spider, but it couldn’t hurt them from the cup.

 

“Got him,” Bruce said, standing up with the cup.

 

“Did you kill it?” Natasha asked, stepping down cautiously.

 

“No, I was going to take it outside,” Bruce explained. The windows didn’t open from all the way up here, so he’d have to take the elevator down to the lobby.

 

“I’ll come with you,” Natasha said. Bruce shrugged but walked out of her apartment to give her privacy to change. To his surprise, she didn’t bother changing and stood next to him outside her door.

 

“You want to get dressed?”

 

“I’m good.” Again, Bruce shrugged and led the way to the elevator. Steve was still snoring soundly, as if nothing had disturbed him, and both Bruce and Natasha laughed until they were inside the elevator.

 

They were silent on the ride down. Bruce was looking straight ahead, trying to not oogle at the mostly naked woman standing next to him. Natasha was glaring at the plastic cup, trying to kill it with just her mind, apparently. The elevator stopped early and they looked at each other curiously before there was a swoosh of the door and an exhausted looking Tony Stark stepped in, rubbing his eyes and mumbling to himself. He seemed as if he was only half conscious, and Bruce wondered if he’d been kicked out of his own lab and forced to go to bed.

 

Stark didn’t even notice them at first as they rode the elevator. He looked over at them and gave some sort of acknowledgement, and then did a double-take.

 

“Interesting evening?” he asked, looking between the two of them and then at the spider, eyebrow raised. Both Natasha and Bruce started to speak, trying to explain, but Tony held up a hand to silence them.

 

“What I’m imagining is much more interesting than the real story I’m sure,” Tony said, riding the elevator down with them to the first level of the tower. Tony waved to Bruce and Natasha as they stepped out to the lobby. “Night kids, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he winked and with another swoosh, the elevator closed and left Bruce and Natasha alone again.

 

“Hurry it’s freezing,” Natasha said, rubbing her bare arms as they walked out the front door. Bruce looked confused for a moment before he remembered the giant mutant spider he had contained in the cup in his hand. He brought it over to one of the potted plants in front of the tower and shook the cup upside down until it fell out. The spider seemed to be a little pissed off at Bruce for shaking him in a cup and then throwing him into the cold and Bruce backed away from the thing once it was scuttling away, no doubt finding its other spider friends to put together a giant mutant-spider army.

 

...Geez, Bruce needed to stop watching movies Clint picked out…

 

“My hero,” Natasha said with an embarrassed smile on her face as Bruce returned, handing her the lone slipper. They threw away the cup.

 

“I’m in awe that you’re afraid of spiders,” Bruce shook his head.

 

“It’s a perfectly normal fear,” Natasha said, crossing her arms.

 

“No offence, Tash, but you’re not a ‘perfectly normal’ person,” he said and she raised an eyebrow at him, flustering him to elaborate. “I- I mean… like I expected you to be afraid of something along the lines of nuclear explosion threats or 10-to-1 combat situations or something…”

 

“I’m well trained to deal with both of those situations,” Natasha said matter-of-factly. “Spiders on the other hand, are unpredictable, and venomous, and their hairy legs….” she made a face and shivered in disgust.

 

“You should see if JARVIS will do a spider-sweep or something before bed,” Bruce suggested as they rode the elevator up.

 

“ _I’d be happy to do that for you, if you wish, Agent Romanov_ ,” JARVIS spoke up.

 

“I’m okay with ignorant bliss for the moment, thanks J,” Natasha said, chuckling a little with Bruce. When they reached their floor, they were met with a very tired, very confused looking Steve standing in the hall.

 

“Where’d you guys go?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “I thought I heard a scream and neither of you were in your rooms…”

 

“You missed all the fun Steve,” Bruce teased. Steve frowned, but he still looked confused as he shrugged and walked back into his room, bedroom door left open.

 

“Night Cap,” Natasha called out, but Steve must have been closer to asleep than they thought because Steve responded with a snore.

 

“I wish I could sleep like that guy,” Bruce said. “Hydra could storm the tower right now and Steve would sleep right through it.”

 

“You’d think after 70 years sleeping under the ice he’d be done with the sleeping thing…” Natasha added. They were both standing outside her bedroom door. “Well this is me,” she said, pointing to her door that they had left open. She tugged the towel tighter around her torso. “You should know you’re my official spider-catcher now. Don’t be alarmed when I knock on your door at…” She peeked in her room at the clock on the wall. “Three in the morning.”

 

“Jesus…” he shook his head. Looks like he was going to get another night of hardly any sleep yet again. “Well, you know where to find me when another spider appears. You should probably change and go to bed. Get at least a few hours shut-eye before Nick storms in with a training mission or something equally ridiculous and unpleasant…” he was rambling a little and quickly bit his tongue to stop.

 

Natasha laughed. “Well Nick knows better than to storm in my room unprepared, I sleep naked,” she winked. Bruce felt his face burn bright read and he tried to stutter out a response, but it was more of a series of ‘uhs’ and ‘ums’. Natasha laughed and leaned up, kissing Bruce on his blushing cheek. “Goodnight Spider-Catcher,” she squeezed his hand (when had they been holding hands?) and turned in to her room, closing the door and dropping her towel at the same time. Bruce spun away and hurried to his room, closing the door behind him. He let out a sigh and found himself touching his cheek where she had kissed him.

 

“Lights JARVIS,” Bruce asked and he was engulfed in darkness yet again. He crawled into bed, his mind still swimming with what had just gone down between him and Natasha. If it had been any other member of the team, the whole event would have been a laugh, some story to share the next day with the rest of their group. But it had felt like an awfully private moment between him and Natasha....

 

“Don’t over think Banner,” he warned himself, putting his head on the pillow and closing his eyes.

 

It wasn’t even ten seconds later before, “ _Doctor Banner I did a quick scan for any arachnids in Agent Romanov’s room…_ ”

 

“That was a joke JARVIS,” Bruce groaned, burying his head in the pillow.

 

“ _I know, sir. However the initial scan picked up that there are in fact seven other spiders in her bedroom at this moment._ ”

 

Shit. “Did you tell Tasha?” Before JARVIS could answer however, the sound of gunfire echoed down the hall. “Nevermind,” he sighed, rolling out of bed.

 

Bruce had to guess that an all nighter hunting spiders with Natasha was much better than a few hours of shut-eye and dreaming about the agent any day.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I miss writing fanfiction! I'm slightly obsessed with my Marvel 'ships at the moment (Stony, NatBruce, Bucky/Clint...) So shoot me a message on Tumblr (username: ashabadash) if you have any writing prompts for me :)


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